Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Governance Capture in a Self-Governing Community: A Qualitative Comparison of the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedias

Zarine Kharazian, Kate Starbird, Benjamin Mako Hill

TL;DR

This study investigates why Croatian Wikipedia experienced governance capture leading to nationalist disinformation between 2011 and 2020, while Serbian Wikipedia largely resisted similar outcomes. Using a grounded-theory analysis of 15 interviews across global and local governance actors within the BCMS Wikipedias, the authors identify three interacting factors—high perceived value as a target, insular bureaucratic cultures, and personalistic institutionalization—that shaped vulnerability to capture. The authors propose a 2x2 conceptual model showing how open, formalized governance reduces capture risk, whereas insular and personalistic arrangements increase it, with Croatian Wikipedia exemplifying the bottom-left, high-risk configuration. These findings contribute to knowledge integrity research by highlighting institutional design as a central determinant of resilience to disinformation in self-governed online communities, and they offer practical implications for strengthening governance structures across peer-production projects.

Abstract

What types of governance arrangements makes some self-governed online groups more vulnerable to disinformation campaigns? To answer this question, we present a qualitative comparative analysis of the Croatian and Serbian Wikipedia editions. We do so because between at least 2011 and 2020, the Croatian language version of Wikipedia was taken over by a small group of administrators who introduced far-right bias and outright disinformation; dissenting editorial voices were reverted, banned, and blocked. Although Serbian Wikipedia is roughly similar in size and age, shares many linguistic and cultural features, and faced similar threats, it seems to have largely avoided this fate. Based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with members of both communities and others in cross-functional platform-level roles, we propose that the convergence of three features -- high perceived value as a target, limited early bureaucratic openness, and a preference for personalistic, informal forms of organization over formal ones -- produced a window of opportunity for governance capture on Croatian Wikipedia. Our findings illustrate that online community governing infrastructures can play a crucial role in systematic disinformation campaigns and other influence operations.

Governance Capture in a Self-Governing Community: A Qualitative Comparison of the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedias

TL;DR

This study investigates why Croatian Wikipedia experienced governance capture leading to nationalist disinformation between 2011 and 2020, while Serbian Wikipedia largely resisted similar outcomes. Using a grounded-theory analysis of 15 interviews across global and local governance actors within the BCMS Wikipedias, the authors identify three interacting factors—high perceived value as a target, insular bureaucratic cultures, and personalistic institutionalization—that shaped vulnerability to capture. The authors propose a 2x2 conceptual model showing how open, formalized governance reduces capture risk, whereas insular and personalistic arrangements increase it, with Croatian Wikipedia exemplifying the bottom-left, high-risk configuration. These findings contribute to knowledge integrity research by highlighting institutional design as a central determinant of resilience to disinformation in self-governed online communities, and they offer practical implications for strengthening governance structures across peer-production projects.

Abstract

What types of governance arrangements makes some self-governed online groups more vulnerable to disinformation campaigns? To answer this question, we present a qualitative comparative analysis of the Croatian and Serbian Wikipedia editions. We do so because between at least 2011 and 2020, the Croatian language version of Wikipedia was taken over by a small group of administrators who introduced far-right bias and outright disinformation; dissenting editorial voices were reverted, banned, and blocked. Although Serbian Wikipedia is roughly similar in size and age, shares many linguistic and cultural features, and faced similar threats, it seems to have largely avoided this fate. Based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with members of both communities and others in cross-functional platform-level roles, we propose that the convergence of three features -- high perceived value as a target, limited early bureaucratic openness, and a preference for personalistic, informal forms of organization over formal ones -- produced a window of opportunity for governance capture on Croatian Wikipedia. Our findings illustrate that online community governing infrastructures can play a crucial role in systematic disinformation campaigns and other influence operations.
Paper Structure (30 sections, 2 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 30 sections, 2 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Governance and Information Quality
  4. Disinformation and Peer Production
  5. Capture of Self-Governing Institutions
  6. Empirical Setting: BCMS Wikipedias
  7. Methods
  8. Findings
  9. Proposition 1: Perceived Value as a Target
  10. Audience Size.
  11. National Resonance.
  12. Proposition 2: Bureaucratic Openness
  13. Early Efforts to Expand Leadership Team on Serbian Wikipedia.
  14. The Rise of a Cabal on Croatian Wikipedia.
  15. Community Capacity to Respond to Governance Threats.
  16. ...and 15 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Screenshot of Croatian Wikipedia WP:Admin page as of June 16, 2021, showing a general description of the role of administrators but no guidelines on administrator conduct, as is found on the English Wikipedia.
  • Figure 2: A conceptual model that visualizes possible institutional configurations for Wikipedia projects that affect the risk of governance capture, derived from our three propositions. The bottom left quadrant of the second 2x2 matrix, representing projects with high value as a target, insular bureaucracies, and personalistic institutions, provides the largest "window of opportunity" for governance capture.